Celebrating Spring

***image1***When spring is on its way, the end of winter will be celebrated. In some villages of the Pfalz region, people say goodbye to winter and welcome spring in different ways Sunday.

One tradition is to “burn winter;” another one is to have summer day parades and perform summer day plays.

To “burn winter” means to put up piles of wood and straw, light them and wait for them to burn down. The tradition goes back to Pagan times, when fires were lit to banish ghosts and demons so spring was able to come.

The burning of winter is a custom that is several hundred years old in Neuleiningen, a village near Wattenheim (on A6). Celebrations start with a parade winding through the village at 2 p.m. Sunday. Children sing spring songs, a band performs brass music and visitors can enjoy big pretzels on a stick decorated with colored ribbons. 

In Frankenstein (on B37, past Hochspeyer), the traditional summer day fest with the burning of winter takes place at 1 p.m. Sunday in front of the Bürgerhaus (community hall). An Easter market featuring handcrafted spring and Easter decorations takes place inside the Bürgerhaus.

Forst, along the German Wine Street, celebrates the most popular and biggest fest in the area to say goodbye to winter. Every year, the third Sunday before Easter, Forst residents perform a play called “Hanselfingerhut Fest.” The first performance is at 2 p.m. Sunday near the northern exit of the village and the last performance is at

3:30 p.m. in front of Felix-Christoph-Traberger-Halle.

Historical documentation of the play dates back to 1721. The story is based on the old Teutonic idea of a fight between summer and winter. 

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The play consists of four scenes and six characters with the village streets as stage. The first scene shows the fight between winter and summer. Both performers are placed in little cone-shaped houses made of laths and sticks.

The winter house is covered with straw and has a straw cross on top; the summer house is covered with ivy and decorated with a blue and white flag on its top. The two competitors are armed with sabers made of wood and walk down the street with the house over their head. They talk about their good qualities before they finally start fighting. Summer wins.

In the second scene, an officer cadet (ensign), who looks like a mercenary in former times, judicially resolves the fight between winter and summer.  

In the third scene, the main character of the play, “Hanselfingerhut,” appears. His dress is shabby and his face is smeared with oil and soot. He represents a tramp who lost all his belongings, but still is in the mood for playing tricks on others and teasing young and good-looking girls.

While singing, he swings between the summer and the winter house, which are about five meters away from each other. He is finally looking for a girl from the audience to press a black brand (kiss) into her face.

The fourth and final scene demonstrates how Hanselfingerhut is exhausted and how the barber tries to cure him with a bloodletting on his toe. But he faints and the officer cadet tickles him with his sword. Hanselfingerhut wakes up again and eats fresh pretzels to recover. All performers keep walking through the streets and re-perform the play twice before the burning of winter on the Festplatz.

The fest starts in the morning after worship service. Children receive special brötchen. This tradition dates back to 1600 when the emperor’s court reader, Felix Christoph Traberger, made a donation.

In a certificate from Sept. 8, 1600, Traberger mentions the good neighborly intents of the mayor and the whole community, which made him donate 40 guilders (former currency) with a two-guilder interest.

The court reader decided that each year on mid-Lent Sunday, brötchen for two guilders must be bought and given to local children. To thank the donor, a prayer must be said for him.

Forst is a little village with about 700 residents located between Bad Dürkheim and Deidesheim. It has many vineyards and is well-known for its wine. The village is dominated by typical framework houses and sandstone buildings covered with ivy and vines. The main street – paved with stones – is part of the German Wine Street.